by Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports

by Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports

An athlete's grades prompted a series of investigations that has enveloped North Carolina for two years, but a report released Thursday concluded that the prestigious university's problems were academic, not athletic.

The report compiled by former Gov. Jim Martin and the national consulting firm Baker Tilly found that "anomalous courses" in the Department of Afro- and African-American Studies (AFAM) extend back as far as fall 1997.

Commissioned in August to expand on a previous university review that spanned only 2007-11, the group found 216 courses with "proven or potential anomalies," and 454 suspected cases of unauthorized grade changes. According to the report, the percentage of athletes in those classes was consistent with the percentage of athletes in all classes in the AFAM department. Academic misconduct was not found in any other departments.

An athlete's grades prompted a series of investigations that has enveloped North Carolina for two years, but a report released Thursday concluded that the prestigious university's problems were academic, not athletic.

The report compiled by former Gov. Jim Martin and the national consulting firm Baker Tilly found that "anomalous courses" in the Department of Afro- and African-American Studies (AFAM) extend back as far as fall 1997.

Commissioned in August to expand on a previous university review that spanned only 2007-11, the group found 216 courses with "proven or potential anomalies," and 454 suspected cases of unauthorized grade changes. According to the report, the percentage of athletes in those classes was consistent with the percentage of athletes in all classes in the AFAM department. Academic misconduct was not found in any other departments.

"This was not an athletic scandal," Martin wrote in his report, which was released to the university's trustees Thursday. "Sadly, it was clearly an academic scandal; but an isolated one, within this one department."

Jay Smith, a professor and associate chair in the UNC Department of History, said in an e-mail Thursday, "I'm quite disappointed by this report. They collected a lot of statistics, but they failed to address the structural strains placed on the university by pressures to succeed in the athletic arena. They never even acknowledged them."

Richard Southall, an associate professor in UNC's Department of Exercise and Sport Science, questioned Thursday why the report explicitly made the distinction between athletics and academics. "I didn't understand why that was said in the report," Southall said. "This is a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scandal. End of discussion."

He also noted that the report's labeling of the scandal as "isolated" mirrored conclusions found in similar scandals at Minnesota, Auburn and other universities.

The scandal first came to light in a 2011 lawsuit filed by former football player Michael McAdoo to get his eligibility reinstated in the wake of the school's 2010 NCAA investigation. The lawsuit revealed a paper submitted by McAdoo for AFAM class was largely plagiarized. A series of investigations by the school and continued reporting by The News & Observer in Raleigh found additional problems within the department.

The school's internal review released in May found 54 aberrant classes in the AFAM department that were largely populated by football and men's basketball players and received little to no instruction.

The transcript for Julius Peppers, a two-sport star at UNC and now a defensive end with the Chicago Bears, was leaked on the school's website in August. His grades suggested that AFAM courses helped him remain eligible throughout his career at UNC.

Martin reviewed data going back 18 years and conducted 84 interviews with faculty, staff, students and other stakeholders in compiling the report.

Jay Smith, a professor and associate chair in the UNC Department of History, said in an e-mail Thursday, "I'm quite disappointed by this report. They collected a lot of statistics, but they failed to address the structural strains placed on the university by pressures to succeed in the athletic arena. They never even acknowledged them."

As the school's own review had, Martin's report placed blame for the aberrant classes and grade changes on two people: Julius Nyang'oro, the former chairman of the department, and Deborah Crowder, an administrator in the department.

"Our evidence shows that no other AFRI/AFAM instructor was responsible for this wrongdoing,"' he wrote. "While we cannot definitively conclude regarding the degree of Ms. Crowder's responsibility for the academic anomalies noted in this report, both this review and the Hartlyn-Andrews Report found a dramatic reduction in academic anomalies after Summer 2009, which coincided with the time of Ms. Crowder's retirement."

The Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes (ASPSA), which was the subject of study in Sept. 2011, was not found to have colluded with instructors or administrators to steer athletes to no-show classes, according to the report. But ASPSA employees were aware of certain AFAM courses called "term paper courses" in which there was little to no instruction and typically only a requirement of writing a 20-25 page paper at the end of the term.

A faculty executive review released in July stated that multiple interviews suggested that athletes were directed to enroll in the aberrant AFAM courses. "We were told that athletes claimed they had been sent to Julius Nyang'oro by the ASPSA," the faculty review states.

The findings extend a scandal that has enveloped one of the country's public oldest universities for more than two years. What began as an NCAA investigation into impermissible benefits and improper relationships with agents expanded to include questions about widespread academic fraud.

"We made mistakes in the past. We were complacent. We didn't ask the hard questions that we should have asked. And we didn't live up to our reputation," Chancellor Holden Thorp told the trustees on Thursday. "We have to acknowledge that we had an environment in which we placed too much trust in people and not enough emphasis on having the systems in place that would have caught these issues."

We still need a system of trust, but we also need appropriate accountability."

Martin's findings come after the school had completed four internal investigations into the academic support program for student-athletes, the independent study program and a review of the AFAM department. A faculty executive committee reviewed all three prior reports and released its findings in July.

"I believe personally that the big money from television contracts does distort values of collegiate sports programs; but we found no evidence that it was a factor in these anomalous courses," Martin wrote. "Despite what one might imagine, there is no evidence the Counselors, or the students, or the coaches had anything to do with perpetrating this abuse of the AFRI/AFAM curriculum, or any other."

A criminal investigation into the AFAM department following findings of academic fraud is ongoing. In May, Orange-Chatham County district attorney Jim Woodall asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into allegations of financial fraud, forgery, computer fraud and attempted conspiracy.

The university's previous report indicated that Nyang'oro was paid to teach a summer school course that had little to no instruction. The university took back $12,000 he received for that class in his final paycheck.

A lawyer for former football coach Butch Davis, who was fired before the start of the 2011 season because of the NCAA investigation, released a statement on Thursday defending the coach's time at the school.

"For the past two years, a few loud voices in this community have clamored that Butch Davis has somehow tarnished the reputation of the University of North Carolina," said Jonathan Sasser. "The Martin Report has confirmed that the opposite is true.

"Governor Martin expressly found that this was 'not an athletic scandal as originally speculated,' and no coach had 'anything to do' with it. He further found that these practices were set in place a decade before Butch Davis arrived in Chapel Hill."

Smith said in his e-mail, "We may do better, and I suspect we'll avoid egregious fraud in the future, but the strains on the system are going to be left in place. In fact, I suspect that the university will now use this report as a clarion call to get back to business as usual."